highs and lows today - not happy with Busch

[tracipierce]

Hi all,

Well I was over the moon this morning when I made my final payment off our trip and was in such a good Florida mood lol that I started to look for park ticket deals - I've pretty much found the cheapest deals on WDW and Universal tickets, but not many websites do the Busch gardens one day ticket on its own (we can't stand Seaworld)

So I checked out Busch gardens website and found a fab deal for a one day ticket plus all you can eat dining throughout the day!!! Quickly checked with all of my party that they were onboard and went to book it......

until I put my CC details in and got the message that I cannot purchase the deal because I'm not a US resident I cannot believe that its not open to us - if I want to purchase it seperately for a lot more money it will let me, just won't let me have the deal. I tried everything I could think of - I do have a shipping address in the US but because the address doesn't link with my credit card it won't let me check out.

What I find ridiculous is that all of the tickets are to be printed out at home, so where you live seems sort of irrelevent.

Anyway rant over, sorry for that, just ticked me off as I was so excited to have found a good deal

 

[flortlebap]

I have a similar problem. I can't buy SW tickets, period. First time that's ever happened!

I don't want to do Busch, or Aquatica, I just want SW, why is that so hard?!

 

[tracipierce]

I have a similar problem. I can't buy SW tickets, period. First time that's ever happened!

I don't want to do Busch, or Aquatica, I just want SW, why is that so hard?!

Isn't it just ridiculous, can't even give our money away!!!

 

[zippy99]

You can get Busch only from UndercoverTourist - works out as $75 /£48 per adult with the transport from central Orlando too.

I understand where you are coming for as we want to do Busch only too.

 

[tracipierce]

Thanks for that tip! Sadly though UT doesn't do the play and dine deal. I think I will end up booking through them though as the price is still quite good - we will just have to pay oop for the food

 

[wilma-bride]

We bought our Busch Gardens tickets from Undercover Tourist too. I was also disappointed that the ticket plus all day dining wasn't available to UK residents. I sent them an Email asking why and got back a very unhelpful email which only confirmed that UK residents could not purchase it (no reason given) and pointing me to a website to buy tickets on which I could only buy the multi-day 2 or 3-park tickets. Absolutely useless.

Flortlebap, you can buy single day tickets from the Sea World website

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for that tip! Sadly though UT doesn't do the play and dine deal. I think I will end up booking through them though as the price is still quite good - we will just have to pay oop for the food

To be honest, we would have never conisdered doing the all-day dining. I honestly don't think it is worth it but we would have bought those tickets where it was only $10 extra if we could have. I would never pay for it separately though.

Once you factor in the savings buying your tickets through Undercover Tourist, paying out of pocket for food probably won't cost you much more than the extra you would have paid for the tickets through the BG website.

 

[tracipierce]

We bought our Busch Gardens tickets from Undercover Tourist too. I was also disappointed that the ticket plus all day dining wasn't available to UK residents. I sent them an Email asking why and got back a very unhelpful email which only confirmed that UK residents could not purchase it (no reason given) and pointing me to a website to buy tickets on which I could only buy the multi-day 2 or 3-park tickets. Absolutely useless.

Flortlebap, you can buy single day tickets from the Sea World website

hmmmm I thought as much, I have emailed them with the same comments but I fully expect to get a brush off reply - sad really.

Has anyone checked out the vacation option on the Busch website? you can book a hotel and a day's park ticket plus dining and it doesn't work out much more, would be nice not to have to drive back after a long day queuing.

I bet any money if I tried to book it, I would get knocked back at the CC stage again

 

[tracipierce]

To be honest, we would have never conisdered doing the all-day dining. I honestly don't think it is worth it but we would have bought those tickets where it was only $10 extra if we could have. I would never pay for it separately though.

Once you factor in the savings buying your tickets through Undercover Tourist, paying out of pocket for food probably won't cost you much more than the extra you would have paid for the tickets through the BG website.

Yeah I agree, I wouldn't pay for the dining at full price, the offer was well worth it though.

 

[wilma-bride]

The vacation packages include length of stay tickets but only free all day dining for one adult. You would still have to buy the dining for the other members of your party, which would be an extra $141.20. You are much better off just buying your one-day tickets from UT and paying out of pocket for food there. We nearly always share a couple of quick service meals between the 3 of us and then have a snack in the afternoon.

We always stop at Mannys on the way back as well - great food and a much better deal than the dining at Busch anyway

It would break up the journey ont he way back a little as well.

 

[tracipierce]

The vacation packages include length of stay tickets but only free all day dining for one adult. You would still have to buy the dining for the other members of your party, which would be an extra $141.20. You are much better off just buying your one-day tickets from UT and paying out of pocket for food there. We nearly always share a couple of quick service meals between the 3 of us and then have a snack in the afternoon.
Wow, did not realise that it was only for one person whew, not such a good deal there then

We always stop at Mannys on the way back as well - great food and a much better deal than the dining at Busch anyway


It would break up the journey ont he way back a little as well.

Good idea - see I feel better already Hmm Manny's - not heard of that place, will have to have a look

 

[tracipierce]

oh and just received this....

Dear Ms. Pierce,

Thank you for contacting Busch Gardens Tampa!

The Play and Dine promotion is currently valid to residents of the United States and Canada. We offer many different promotions throughout the year. Please use the below website to make your online purchase:

http://www.seaworldparks.co.uk/

Once more, thank you for contacting us. We look forward to hosting you soon!

Sincerely,

Guest Relations
Busch Gardens Tampa

 

[wilma-bride]

Pretty much exactly the same wording as my email. And the funny/stupid thing is, I made it quite clear in my Email to them that I wanted 1-day tickets to Busch Gardens ONLY and the link they quote you can only buy multi-park tickets

 

[stephensmum]

Same happened to me but for SW, we'd decided not to do SW as we were doing 11 nights Disney & 5 nights USO, when I saw the food was included I decided to book it for one of the days we are at USO as we have the DDP at Disney.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

Hi all,



So I checked out Busch gardens website and found a fab deal for a one day ticket plus all you can eat dining throughout the day!!! Quickly checked with all of my party that they were onboard and went to book it......



Hi

We did this when we went, not sure if I actually rang up and did it though - if you do the cheap dialling code should not be too expensive - good luck.

the only thing we found was the restaurants did not seem to be where we were if that makes sense. Not sure if would do it again.

 

[juliebro]

We always stop at Mannys on the way back as well - great food and a much better deal than the dining at Busch anyway

It would break up the journey ont he way back a little as well.

That's exactly what we do too!

OP - here's the website.......

http://mannyschophouse.com/

It's the Haines City location that you need.

Enjoy!